Author's Notes: I'm not too sure about this chapter, but I'm posting it
anyway. If it's crap, tell me and I'll re-write it. Maybe.
Disclaimer: See part one.
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Sirius settled into life in Talsgate faster than anyone ever had, claimed Rubber, who had been here longest. He was making friends by supper, and it was really, really getting on my nerves.
Alright, so he had supposedly always been popular when he'd been at Hogwarts, and okay he was famous, but really! He'd been an escaped convict for five years!
Oh. Maybe that wasn't such a good argument to use in here. Hmm.
Well there's always the fact that he was monopolizing Harry's attention, and I really didn't like that.
Understatement. I hated that.
No, I think that again was an understatement. I really, really, really loathed, detested, felt a fiery rage at that.
Gary, the only one of our group who knew about...me and Harry - and I very much hoped that there was a me and Harry and it hadn't just been a mistake on Harry's part - gave me a sympathetic look, then proceeded to laugh his head off at Sirius's jokes. Which, alright, may have been a little funny, but he was a traitor to laugh.
Then I realised that I was possibly behaving very badly and as though I was jealous, which of course I wasn't, so I actually listened to the banter around me, and even cracked a smile once or twice. Maybe three times.
But I didn't wait for everyone else after I'd finished. I dumped my plate and cup, and returned to my cell. I didn't do nothing though; I read a book. For several months now there'd been an unofficial library of the few books that we'd been sent by friends or relatives. It was effectively run by Tom of cell three nine-oh, and my turn had finally come to borrow a book. Since most of them were Muggle, I was spoiled for choice. I'd selected Lord of the Rings, since I remembered someone raving about it at Hogwarts.
I was halfway through the first volume, and I rather wanted to finish it before I had to give it back.
"Were you jealous?"
I lifted my eyes from my book, somewhat aggrieved at being interrupted, even if it was Harry.
"Why on earth would I be jealous?" I retorted grumpily. If he was going to ignore me and then interrupt me, then he could just deal with the consequences.
Harry raised one eyebrow, and I remembered just who it was I was dealing with. Damn. And I was looking forward to actually having an attitude for once.
"Come and sit down," I muttered. He stepped into my cell and sat on the end of my bed; I bent my knees to accommodate him.
"You were jealous," he stated, pulling the book from my hands, closing it and setting it down on the table. "I want to know why."
Hmph. Like he didn't already know. I returned his gaze evenly, one eyebrow slightly raised. A smile tugged at the corner of his mouth, and he leant against the wall leisurely.
"We were interrupted earlier," he commented. I felt like rolling my eyes, but restrained myself. "We."
"Need to talk to Black," I interrupted him, surprising him and myself. "About the...takeover. If it really is that."
"No," Harry contradicted me. "We need to talk about Blaise Zabini."
I blinked. Had I heard him right? In the face of a possible takeover of the prison by the resistance, he wanted to talk about Blaise Zabini, the man who had just left him for trash like he'd left every other single person he'd ever been with.
Talk about crazy.
"Are you fully aware of what you just said?" I inquired pleasantly. He stared at me. "You just said - or as near as doesn't make any difference - that you'd rather talk about - and think about - Zabini, who by the way is little more than a slut, when something is about to happen that very possibly could change everything in England!"
Harry's face closed up. "Maybe I did, maybe I didn't," he said edgily. "I need to make sure that you're not going to do something stupid to Blaise - Zabini," he corrected himself. "It would...it would be a bad idea, Draco."
"I'm not stupid," I retorted, furious that he'd thought I might do something like that - I wasn't stupid, and I had been a Slytherin, not a Gryffindor - *I* wasn't about to rush into anything without thinking about it carefully.
Then I sighed. Under the circumstances I suppose it was perfectly reasonable for him to think that - after all, for most men in here the answer to most things was a good hard right hook.
"I wouldn't do that," I said at last. "That's not...that's not me, and besides...I don't want to give him any more dirt on me."
Harry gave me an oddly thoughtful look. "Hmm. That's what I thought you'd say." He looked away for a moment, and when he looked back at me he had returned to being the Harry I'd come to know over the past few months; cold, hard, and not a bit annoying.
"Now that that's over," he said, and I knew it was over and would never be alluded to again by him from his tone of voice, "we can talk about Sirius."
"Do you think he was telling the truth?" I asked him immediately. It was something that had been nagging at me ever since Black had explained to us what was supposedly going to happen here in three weeks time. I couldn't help but think that maybe.maybe it wasn't Sirius Black. Maybe it was, I don't know, Polyjuice potion, or something similar. I couldn't help but think that it might be a trap to catch Harry out.
Harry looked at me askance. "Of course he is; why ever shouldn't he?"
But of course Harry wouldn't think ill of his godfather. He might have changed, but he and Black, I was aware, had always been close.
"I don't know," I muttered. "I just...it seems like too much of a coincidence, all this happening. I mean...Granger, when she came...she said something about rumours...and then Voldemort coming after you, uh, blew up Helga Alley." Which had since been repaired, but that wasn't the point. "I don't know, Harry, I'm just...worried."
He reached up and tucked a strand of my hair, that had grown considerably, behind my ear, startling me. I blinked.
"Don't be," he told me. "It's not worth it. Just..." He shrugged and pulled his hand back. "We'll need to tell the others," he commented. "Since we didn't say anything earlier."
I nodded. Right. Black had suggested that we tell the whole prison - I think he expected that we were all unified - but Harry had told him that it wouldn't help, and it might even make the plan fail.
I think the funniest thing about the whole situation was the look on Black's face when he realised that Harry had grown up.
"I'd better go and find Sirius," Harry said after a moment, rising. I nodded again - sometimes I felt like I was doing little else in here - and he gave me another inscrutable look before leaning down and kissing me hard.
Oh.
"Showers, one hour," he breathed, and then he was gone.
I grimaced. Bloody idiot. He does *that* and then expects me to wait an hour?
I grabbed my book again and tried to concentrate on Frodo's journey through Moria.
It didn't really work.
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To be continued.
Replies to reviews:
anne phoenix - who says I don't sleep much? I sleep...sometimes...
mandraco - ooh yay, I like you! You're not calling me evil! Thank you.
Maddy - yes, more already. Um, ow? And I do take breaks for more than six hours at a time. I sleep seven hours at night from when I post a chapter to when I start writing the next. There, see?
T. K. Yuy - Perfect? Really? Wow. Yes, it was lighter - I needed a little lightness to, uh, lighten it up a little. It's getting back to darkness...as I said above, I'm not too sure about this chapter, but I think it's darker. The next chapter certainly will be. I think. There wasn't too much of Sirius in this chapter, since I wanted to concentrate on Draco's reactions so some things, but trust me, there will be next chapter.
Disclaimer: See part one.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Sirius settled into life in Talsgate faster than anyone ever had, claimed Rubber, who had been here longest. He was making friends by supper, and it was really, really getting on my nerves.
Alright, so he had supposedly always been popular when he'd been at Hogwarts, and okay he was famous, but really! He'd been an escaped convict for five years!
Oh. Maybe that wasn't such a good argument to use in here. Hmm.
Well there's always the fact that he was monopolizing Harry's attention, and I really didn't like that.
Understatement. I hated that.
No, I think that again was an understatement. I really, really, really loathed, detested, felt a fiery rage at that.
Gary, the only one of our group who knew about...me and Harry - and I very much hoped that there was a me and Harry and it hadn't just been a mistake on Harry's part - gave me a sympathetic look, then proceeded to laugh his head off at Sirius's jokes. Which, alright, may have been a little funny, but he was a traitor to laugh.
Then I realised that I was possibly behaving very badly and as though I was jealous, which of course I wasn't, so I actually listened to the banter around me, and even cracked a smile once or twice. Maybe three times.
But I didn't wait for everyone else after I'd finished. I dumped my plate and cup, and returned to my cell. I didn't do nothing though; I read a book. For several months now there'd been an unofficial library of the few books that we'd been sent by friends or relatives. It was effectively run by Tom of cell three nine-oh, and my turn had finally come to borrow a book. Since most of them were Muggle, I was spoiled for choice. I'd selected Lord of the Rings, since I remembered someone raving about it at Hogwarts.
I was halfway through the first volume, and I rather wanted to finish it before I had to give it back.
"Were you jealous?"
I lifted my eyes from my book, somewhat aggrieved at being interrupted, even if it was Harry.
"Why on earth would I be jealous?" I retorted grumpily. If he was going to ignore me and then interrupt me, then he could just deal with the consequences.
Harry raised one eyebrow, and I remembered just who it was I was dealing with. Damn. And I was looking forward to actually having an attitude for once.
"Come and sit down," I muttered. He stepped into my cell and sat on the end of my bed; I bent my knees to accommodate him.
"You were jealous," he stated, pulling the book from my hands, closing it and setting it down on the table. "I want to know why."
Hmph. Like he didn't already know. I returned his gaze evenly, one eyebrow slightly raised. A smile tugged at the corner of his mouth, and he leant against the wall leisurely.
"We were interrupted earlier," he commented. I felt like rolling my eyes, but restrained myself. "We."
"Need to talk to Black," I interrupted him, surprising him and myself. "About the...takeover. If it really is that."
"No," Harry contradicted me. "We need to talk about Blaise Zabini."
I blinked. Had I heard him right? In the face of a possible takeover of the prison by the resistance, he wanted to talk about Blaise Zabini, the man who had just left him for trash like he'd left every other single person he'd ever been with.
Talk about crazy.
"Are you fully aware of what you just said?" I inquired pleasantly. He stared at me. "You just said - or as near as doesn't make any difference - that you'd rather talk about - and think about - Zabini, who by the way is little more than a slut, when something is about to happen that very possibly could change everything in England!"
Harry's face closed up. "Maybe I did, maybe I didn't," he said edgily. "I need to make sure that you're not going to do something stupid to Blaise - Zabini," he corrected himself. "It would...it would be a bad idea, Draco."
"I'm not stupid," I retorted, furious that he'd thought I might do something like that - I wasn't stupid, and I had been a Slytherin, not a Gryffindor - *I* wasn't about to rush into anything without thinking about it carefully.
Then I sighed. Under the circumstances I suppose it was perfectly reasonable for him to think that - after all, for most men in here the answer to most things was a good hard right hook.
"I wouldn't do that," I said at last. "That's not...that's not me, and besides...I don't want to give him any more dirt on me."
Harry gave me an oddly thoughtful look. "Hmm. That's what I thought you'd say." He looked away for a moment, and when he looked back at me he had returned to being the Harry I'd come to know over the past few months; cold, hard, and not a bit annoying.
"Now that that's over," he said, and I knew it was over and would never be alluded to again by him from his tone of voice, "we can talk about Sirius."
"Do you think he was telling the truth?" I asked him immediately. It was something that had been nagging at me ever since Black had explained to us what was supposedly going to happen here in three weeks time. I couldn't help but think that maybe.maybe it wasn't Sirius Black. Maybe it was, I don't know, Polyjuice potion, or something similar. I couldn't help but think that it might be a trap to catch Harry out.
Harry looked at me askance. "Of course he is; why ever shouldn't he?"
But of course Harry wouldn't think ill of his godfather. He might have changed, but he and Black, I was aware, had always been close.
"I don't know," I muttered. "I just...it seems like too much of a coincidence, all this happening. I mean...Granger, when she came...she said something about rumours...and then Voldemort coming after you, uh, blew up Helga Alley." Which had since been repaired, but that wasn't the point. "I don't know, Harry, I'm just...worried."
He reached up and tucked a strand of my hair, that had grown considerably, behind my ear, startling me. I blinked.
"Don't be," he told me. "It's not worth it. Just..." He shrugged and pulled his hand back. "We'll need to tell the others," he commented. "Since we didn't say anything earlier."
I nodded. Right. Black had suggested that we tell the whole prison - I think he expected that we were all unified - but Harry had told him that it wouldn't help, and it might even make the plan fail.
I think the funniest thing about the whole situation was the look on Black's face when he realised that Harry had grown up.
"I'd better go and find Sirius," Harry said after a moment, rising. I nodded again - sometimes I felt like I was doing little else in here - and he gave me another inscrutable look before leaning down and kissing me hard.
Oh.
"Showers, one hour," he breathed, and then he was gone.
I grimaced. Bloody idiot. He does *that* and then expects me to wait an hour?
I grabbed my book again and tried to concentrate on Frodo's journey through Moria.
It didn't really work.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
To be continued.
Replies to reviews:
anne phoenix - who says I don't sleep much? I sleep...sometimes...
mandraco - ooh yay, I like you! You're not calling me evil! Thank you.
Maddy - yes, more already. Um, ow? And I do take breaks for more than six hours at a time. I sleep seven hours at night from when I post a chapter to when I start writing the next. There, see?
T. K. Yuy - Perfect? Really? Wow. Yes, it was lighter - I needed a little lightness to, uh, lighten it up a little. It's getting back to darkness...as I said above, I'm not too sure about this chapter, but I think it's darker. The next chapter certainly will be. I think. There wasn't too much of Sirius in this chapter, since I wanted to concentrate on Draco's reactions so some things, but trust me, there will be next chapter.